Blog Giant - Interview with Michael J. Totten

Few have influenced (positively in the widest possible sense) the blogosphere as has one of my most important influences - Michael J. Totten. Michael is difficult to pin down in terms of his interests. He is a traveler, an author, a blogger, a reporter, a photographer (and photoshopper) family man and a friend.

In the Summer of ’02 I was going through a number of newspapers on the internet, the NYTimes, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, and a few smaller, less well known papers, McAllen Monitor, Arkansas Democrat Gazette checking on the war in Afghanistan, catching up on news, reading opinion, jotting entries into several online-forums.

This was my early morning routine, read current affairs, make comments in forums from time to time, subscribe to a couple of online journals/magazines (National Review Online, Weekly Standard, The Hill etc) and I even clicked on to Drudge to check out his take and to click on some of my favorite columnists.

I would print out Best of the Web, maybe an Opinion Journal editorial or two from the day before and read them while sipping coffee on the patio.

Little did I know that I would soon discover the world of blogs. One of the first was, of course, Glen Reynolds, author of Instapundit, and from time to time, I’d click on a link read and perhaps linger a while on a fairly large variety of news sources, opinion sources and increasingly, blogs. One day, I clicked on a link somewhere, on some site and ended up at Michael Totten's Blog Don’t remember where I was when I found it, but I did! This was somewhere near the end of ‘03, beginning of ’04 and the world (mine at least) shifted to a whole new reality, a new frame of reference.

Here is this guy Michael J. Totten, a liberal mugged by 9-11 supporting the WOT and Bush and Co.’s efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not only that, but this guy is absolutely doing it in a professional manner. This was new to me. Being a frequenter of the Washington Post’s news forum I got occasionally disgusted with left and right wing rants, ad homonym attacks on each other and other sometimes tiring techniques of argument not resolving anything (and yes, I was occasionally guilty of the same things I tired of). In short, the forums were getting boring, and sophistic.

Over the next several months, I left the news papers and began reading blogs, all kinds of blogs. Left, right, centrist, lib, commie-hippie-pinko, Democratic supporters, Republican supporters, middle of the road supporters. Sheesh, you name it, I read it. But I almost always started my day with Michael Totten’s blog to find out what was what. I started reading his articles on Tech-Central-Station and spread around to other blogs such as Kaus Files, Powerline, Roger L. Simon, and Polipundit

I would occasionally post a comment or two, usually fairly innocuous in nature as this was a new medium for me and I felt a little uncomfortable and unsure of myself. Responses from Michael or other commenters were usually polite (well, Michael was always polite). Then I sent him an e-mail about something he stated in a post and lo and behold, I got an answer back. Wow, what a new experience.

One morning in the early part of ’04, Michael suggested to his readers that they try a new blog by a friend of his, Marc Cooper. I did and found a “progressive� site that wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade and point out the perceived flaws in both the left and right. I became a regular commenter at Cooper’s site, but still Michael was my morning “fix.�

Then, in October of ‘04 I started blogging myself at the encouragement of Cooper, a decision that I have yet to regret. A little over two months ago, I contacted Michael and asked him about doing profile/interview of him and he agreed.

Me, doing a profile on one of my blog heroes? Oh boy, was this going to be something. Michael and I corresponded a while and I sent him questions to ponder and answer. Then, things started heating up in Lebanon and Michael e-mailed me saying that our “project� might be delayed. “Uh Oh� I thought, there it goes down the tubes.

I followed Michael’s postings from Lebanon and was increasingly glad that he had gone. His posts described a Cedar Revolution not found in the MSM. Insights based on direct observations and conversations with Lebanese, photographs of rallies, of people, families, children, a country in the throes of discovering its power.

As you all know, Michael made it back, safe and sound and his articles on the Cedar Revolution are must reads.

Through Michael, I’ve met, corresponded with, linked to and enjoyed many, many others. I’ve also made a friend. So, without further ado, here is Michael in his own words, with occasional comment from yours truly.

I Googled Michael J. Totten and got over 75,100 hits in less than one second. How does that make you feel knowing there are that many mentions of you on the net?[addendum, today's Google produced 220,000 google "hits."]

It’s kind of shocking, really. That’s a pretty big number. But the shock is lessened somewhat when I realize lots of those search hits are my own blog posts. I haven’t been quoted by 75,000 different people.

[Michael is, I think being quite modest. Though he undoubtedly is correct that a lot of those “hits� are indeed his own posts, he would have to be far more prolific than he is to even have 20,000 items up there. So, that leaves, by this writing more than 200,000 different mentions on a google search… nice try Michael, but there is no need to be modest about this statistic - you done good!]

You grew up in Oregon. What was it like to grow up in one of the more liberal places in America?

Oregon isn’t liberal, it has a few liberal cities in it. Oregon isn’t really even a place. It’s a geographic abstraction with a government. The borders don’t make any sense.

Let me explain. Portland - Oregon’s largest city - runs right up to the Washington state line. Some of our suburbs are actually inside Washington. If you drive north across that border you’ll eventually reach Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. Not only will you cross a state border if you drive five hours north, you’ll cross an international border. And yet you’ll remain within the same Pacific Northwest cultural region even after you’ve cleared customs.
But if you drive only an hour and a half to the east you’ll be in the desert. It’s cowboy country out there. And I mean real-deal cowboys, not wannabe urban guys with boots and a hat. Go to southeast Oregon and you’ll find not hipsters, hippies, and latte-sipping city boys like me. You’ll find people who came here from the Basque country in Spain. They spend all day silently herding scrub-grazing cattle by themselves. Believe me, Oregon’s desert country isn’t liberal or left. It is radically libertarian. I enjoy hanging out there because to me it’s foreign, exotic. It’s hard to believe the people out there are my fellow Oregonians, but they are. Portland really does have more in common with the Canadian city a few hours north.

Salem, the state capital where I grew up, is more like a small version of Des Moines, Iowa, than it is like Portland, Seattle, Vancouver B.C., or the high desert. It’s a boring, conservative, provincial government town.

To get back to your question, I didn’t grow up in liberal Oregon. I grew up in conservative Oregon. And I’m glad I no longer live there. It’s a cultural and intellectual void. If you want to watch a foreign film in the theater, let alone the opera, you have to drive to Portland or fly to San Francisco – except that you can’t fly anywhere from Salem, so never mind. If you’re into anything even remotely out of the ordinary (writing, art, dance, photography, or even physics) you’ll have a hell of a time finding anyone in Salem you can relate to. If you are able to find such a person, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll be planning an escape from the city.

I may not toe the liberal line in politics anymore, but I don’t think I could live in a so-called “red� part of the country either unless it’s a blue city in a red state. I need the cultural and urban amenities that liberals and leftists create.

[I think Michael is mistaken about creativity and varied interests in conservative places, but that is perhaps because his interests are not the interests of many conservatives. If you ask most people what they think is Oregon's political leanings, they will answer "liberal" but Michael is perhaps right in declaring a "state" not liberal, though the majority of the people are - folks in the high desert, Salem etc not-with-standing]

Last year as part of a discussion on Hugo Chavez at Daily Thoughts you were quoted from your blog entry here: "Boy did I goof that one. ... Venezuela is now the closest thing Latin America has to a dictatorship outside Cuba."

Any others you now believed you goofed on? What should the US do about Chavez, if anything.

I’ve goofed on lots of my political opinions. And all my previously wrong opinions were liberal or leftist. That’s not because liberal ideas are more likely to be wrong than conservative ideas, but rather because I’ve hardly ever had any conservative opinions in the first place that I could later backtrack on.

I once was a pacifist, but I no longer am. I used to think affirmative action was a good idea, but I’ve been against that for about ten years now. Until 2001 or so I was part of the anti-globalization crowd, but I’ve walked away from them since then. Until rather recently I didn’t understand the pro-globalization side of the argument. I do now, but I also think globalization’s cheerleaders are too dismissive of people who point out the very real dark side of the process. Globalization really does smash some people. Look at Flint, Michigan. You don’t have to be a Michael Moore groupie to see that what happened to Flint is a catastrophe.

I have backtracked on two previously conservative opinions that I held when I was a teenager: I used to think gay marriage and abortion should be illegal. I no longer do.

You have traveled extensively, last year blogging from North Africa notably from Libya. Libya is an acknowledged police state. Were you at any time concerned about your safety, any time a little bit paranoid about who may be near you listening in?

I never felt even remotely threatened. One Libyan at an archeological site insisted no one would dare bother or harass foreign guests in any way. On the off-chance anyone does bother me, he said, just yell and everyone within ear- and eye-shot will come to my rescue. I believed him. I walked through some creepy-looking Tripoli neighborhoods, and I smiled at people to make myself feel better. They always smiled back, and their smiles were always warm, soft, and innocent. You have to understand – Muslim countries are the safest places in the world you can visit, as long as they aren’t currently war zones. Baghdad isn’t safe, but that’s because it’s a war zone not because it’s Islamic or because it’s a dictatorship. The only sort of harassment you’ll get in a place like Marrakech is a carpet tout who won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The biggest problem I had with people in Tunisia was that the locals kept insisting I have tea with them when I had somewhere I wanted to go.

Libya is a total surveillance police state. I did feel constantly watched. That’s because I was constantly watched – by my guides, the ubiquitous soldiers, and the not-at-all secret police in the hotel lobbies. But everyone is so nice it takes a bit of the edge off. I did have to keep my mouth shut, and I didn’t dare tell anyone I was going to write about the place. I only took notes in my hotel room. But I wouldn’t say it was scary. I just had to be careful and quiet.

Guatemala is definitely sketchier, and it’s a free country. Lots of tourists go there.

In December of 2003 Randy Paul of Beautiful Horizons posted on human rights. The conversation between the two of you was both enlightening and at the same time maddening. Do you suppose that most of the left will ever stop demanding perfection in their enemies and shrug off imperfection in their own? You can turn that question around for the right as well.

I like Randy Paul and I don’t want to knock him around even though I do sometimes argue with him. One reason I argue with him is because he’s an eminently reasonable, as well as intelligent, person.

I don’t think the “left� or the “right� really demand perfection from people on the other side of the political divide. Randy Paul is a mainstream Democrat. So if someone were to meet his idea of perfection that person wouldn’t be a Republican in the first place. Same goes for anyone who fits Sean Hannity’s idea of perfection. People are just more likely to criticize those on the other side than those on their own side because that’s how partisan politics plays out. It’s hard for a Democrat to admit George W. Bush might be right about anything, partly because they want to defeat George W. Bush. Saying “Bush was right� is counterproductive. It’s giving “ammunition to the enemy.�

It’s exactly the same on the right. Bill Clinton said and did plenty of things that would have warmed the hearts of conservatives if George W. Bush had said or done them instead. (Signing NAFTA, reforming welfare, expanding the so-called “War on Drugs� to Colombia, etc.) But he was a Democrat. So instead of saying “good on him� the leading lights of the Republican Party seethed, whined, and lost elections instead.

Yours was one of the very first blogs I ever read and for a long time you were my first read of the morning. You introduced me to your friend Marc Cooper and - whether you know it or not - your example and Marc’s push started me blogging. Why do YOU blog? You are/were a successful writer in many ways and blogging is essentially NOT a money making business - though some like Instapundit make a small fortune I’m sure.

First of all, thanks. I’m happy to hear I inspired anyone to do anything. And I’m not at all surprised Marc Cooper pushed you to blog even though he thinks you’re wrong about almost everything. That’s the kind of guy Marc is.

The reason I started blogging is because I worked in the high tech industry and wanted a writing career instead. I felt like I was wasting away in tech. The money was good, but I spent almost my entire adulthood studying writing, history, and literature. A blog seemed like the best way to build a little name-recognition and hopefully get some paid work on the side. It worked, too. I have been out of the tech industry for a year now. I took a gigantic pay cut, but I am able to cobble together a living from various freelance and part-time writing and editing gigs. Every single person who hired me since I lost my tech job started out as one of my blog readers. If I didn’t first have a blog I wouldn’t have any of the writing and editing work I have now.

I also blog because it’s fun and the feedback is great. I still get some feedback from readers when I publish articles elsewhere. But both the quantity and the quality is less than what I get on the blog.

Another reason I started a blog is simply because I read blogs and thought: I could do that.

[I should note that Marc Cooper does indeed think I'm wrong on just about everything. That's OK, I love the guy anyway and he has every right to be wrong.]

Yours is one of the most well-read blogs, with over 1.5 million visitors and more than 2 million page views. That is quite an accomplishment. Does that stroke your ego, or is it just another accolade?

It does stroke my ego. At the same time, it’s humbling. Instapundit and Atrios are kicking my butt.

[I should note that quantity does not equate to quality. Reynolds writes some really excellent stuff at Tech-Central-Station but his blog is not a lot of him, it is a lot of reporting what others are saying/thinking/doing and usually a brief opinion such as "Indeed!" or "Heh!" Both of which I love to see. Atrios on the other hand is also well read, but well, what can I say about an uber-liberal?]

Update: Welcome readers from Michael Totten's blog. Michael states that I'm being too generous. Au Contraire, I don't think I was generous enough. If you agree with me, please leave a comment. If you disagree, please leave a comment.

If you had to choose careers all over again, is there one that you secretly wish to pursue?

If I had to pick something other than writing and editing, I’d like to be a musician, an English teacher, a homicide detective, or a spy. The first two appeal to my “soft� side. What draws me to the second two is the same thing that led me to seek an assignment where I could sneak around inside Libya. I love art and adventure. Maybe someday I can become fully self-actualized and make my living as a literary travel writer. That would be great, but it takes years and years before anyone can hope to pull that off.

Some of your posts regarding the more radical left makes it seem as though such as people like Juan Cole, Edward Said and Noam Chomsky would not necessarily be welcome in your home for dinner and conversation. Why, or am I off base?

You’re off base. I can be cranky about politics on the blog, but it’s just politics. It’s not personal.

Actually, I would have a problem with Juan Cole in my house. But that’s not because I don’t agree with him about politics. It’s because he acted as a megaphone for paranoid idiot conspiracy theories about friends and colleagues of mine. That’s not okay. Edward Said, were he still alive, would be more than welcome in my house. We would argue, but that’s fine. Some friends of mine love to argue about politics as much as I do. We make a sport of it and I’ve learned a lot from them.

You and your friend Marc Cooper have fairly different ideas about the War on Terror and the campaign in Iraq. What would it take, do you think, to bring progressives like Cooper over to your side of the argument?

It depends on the person. Marc Cooper told Norm Geras that he opposed Bill Clinton’s intervention in the Balkans over Bosnia and Kosovo and that he later changed his mind. I’m not sure why he changed his mind, but he did. Perhaps it’s because that war didn’t turn out to be as bad as he expected, but I’m just guessing. You would have to ask him.

What would make the largest number of people change their mind is if Iraq becomes a stable democracy within five years. If that doesn’t happen, minds are going to change in the other direction.

You blog, you write, you comment on other blogs on a fairly regular basis. When do you find time for friends and family, especially family.

My immediate family consists of my wife and two cats. Blogging is sometimes a bit of an obstacle. It’s something I still need to work on. I don’t need to blog less, I need better time-management skills. I’m v-e-r-y slowly getting better at this, but it’s hard. I have such a flexible schedule nowadays so I shouldn’t have this problem. But I do. Part of me wants to get the most out of that flexibility by resisting the very idea of a schedule.

Many neo-cons [and others who have left the Democratic party] say they did not leave the left or the Democratic Party, but that the left and the Democrats left them. Where do you stand? Why?

I’m not a neocon, but I can relate. People change over time. Political parties change over time. Sometimes a person doesn’t change while their party does. That can leave them stranded.

I do feel that way to an extent about my old party, the Democrats. George W. Bush’s foreign policy is Wilsonian. Woodrow Wilson was a Democrat, not a Republican. As they say, what is conservative today was progressive yesterday. But it’s not generally the case that what’s progressive today was conservative yesterday. On foreign policy, though, it is. The Democrats sound more and more like Pat Buchanan all the time.

Like I said before, I used to be a pacifist. 9/11 didn’t change that. Bosnia did. Everything I have ever learned about the dangers of appeasement, the fecklessness of the U.N., and the need for the use of force was taught to me by the liberal intellectuals of the 1990s. I actually thought for a while there that the Democrats might become the new war party. It was Trent Lott and Tom DeLay, not John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi, who sounded like peaceniks and hippies during the Kosovo war. Our two parties switched places over Iraq, but I couldn’t follow my party. I don’t have a political party now, and I don’t want one.

You visited Lebanon and wrote convincingly of their Cedar Revolution and of the wonderful people you met, people from all walks of life. What is it about the CR that struck such a resonant chord in you?

When Nabil Abou-Charraf told me they are working on the resolution to the Clash of Civilizations I was just thunderstruck. They can’t pull that off by themselves, but bless their hearts for trying. Not only was this the most encouraging thing I saw, it was also the most surprising. I had a pretty good idea what was happening in Lebanon before I got there. I’ve been reading about the country for years and I followed the news coverage closely. But I hadn’t seen any mention of this, not even in Lebanon’s own English-language newspaper the Daily Star. That’s a story that needed to be told, and I’m glad I got to tell it.

Any other travels on the immediate horizon?

I don’t have any work-related travel plans at the moment. My wife and I are trying to figure out where we want to go next for fun. We may go to South East Asia, a place I’ve never been but my wife knows well. (She used to live in Taiwan.) I also want to go to Argentina. I’m more than a little tempted to book a flight to Buenos Aires right now.

Michael is one of the more interesting people that I've met through this media called the blogosphere. Very liberal in some ways, rather conservative in others, someone that doesn't really fit into any pigeon-hole. But, having made his acquaintance, reading his posts on a regular basis I can say this for sure: Michael is a friend, an interesting fellow and someone you should read regularly. He is full of surprises and will never disappoint.

Cheers Michael, and thanks!

Posted by GM Roper at June 1, 2005 05:21 PM | TrackBack